May 09, 2007

New Maps Of Hell

Alexander Cockburn drags the Earth's core into The Nation's no spin zone

Rush Limbaugh and Fox TV have long accused climate physicists of fundamentalist zeal. That tabloid science meme has now moved on from Drudge to take fire in The Nation, where the patriarch of CounterPunch, beet-faced at Green heretics fraternizing with capitalists , cocks a left hook at the first law of thermodynamics in this Jeremiad :

"In a couple of hundred years, historians will be comparing the frenzies over our supposed human contribution to global warming to the tumults at the latter end of the tenth century...Then as now, a buoyant market throve on fear. The Roman Catholic Church was a bank whose capital was secured by the infinite mercy of Christ...and so...The sinners established a line of credit against bad behavior and could go on sinning. Today a world market in "carbon credits" is in formation. Those whose "carbon footprint" is small can sell their surplus carbon credits to others, less virtuous than themselves.

The modern trade is as fantastical as the medieval one. There is still zero empirical evidence that anthropogenic production of CO2 is making any measurable contribution to the world's present warming trend...Poseidon should go hunting for carbon credits...the human carbon footprint is of zero consequence...not even to mention the role of the giant reactor beneath our feet: the earth's increasingly hot molten core"

Whoever mixes The Nation's cocktails these days, Chris Hitchens has a duty to steal the recipe for Cockburn's inspirational punch and share it with the Real Climate crew.

It must be powerful good-- "the earth's increasingly hot molten core" is the most radical new idea in tipping points so far this publishing season. Superstitous belief in the conservation of energy is no excuse--The Nation has spoken.

I was with him, sort of, until he said "increasingly hot molten core."

I doubt there will be any historians worthy of the label two centuries from now, though. Western Civilization cut its own throat in 1914 and continues to thrash about, not quite fully exsanguinated, but the end is within sight and has never been in doubt. When the West dies, the First World dies with it, and the rest of our species, without our vigorous economies and generous taxpayers to shovel money and economic aid at them, goes back to the caves, forever. Apres nous, le deluge.

I was a bit thrown off by the "increasingly hot molten core" as well. My understanding, though, was that the heat of the Earth's core was fueled by the decay of certain radioactive elements. If this were true, it MIGHT be possible the temperature is increasing.

All a bit above my pay grade.

RESPONSE
The half life of the heat releasing radioactive isotopes results in the decrease of heat release over time . The last natural reactors went out about 1,5 billion years ago and it has been getting colder ever since .

Regardless of whether one might posit a possible hypothetical way that the Earth's core could heat up, there remains the question of whether there is any empirical evidence that the core is in fact heating. Surely Cockburn should be expected to point to this evidence, or to retract the claim.

That said, if someone found that the Earth appeared to be warming -- either with real-time direct measurements, or from geological evidence, I'm confident that scientists would come up with explanations for why this might be so. After all, stars pulse up and down, especially near the ends of their lives. And no, the First Law of Thermodynamics does not forbid a temperature increase. It addresses internal energy, not temperature. All that said, one would expect a generally declining temperature as radio-isotopes decay.